


o·blivi·ous·ly in Love

by Lilylovesbones



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Everyone Is Alive, Evil Genius Lex, F/M, Female Stiles Stilinski, Hale family - Freeform, Jealous Derek, Jealous Stiles, M/M, Mentioned Kate Argent, Oblivious Derek, Oblivious Stiles, Romance, Teenage Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-02
Updated: 2014-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-15 12:27:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/527313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilylovesbones/pseuds/Lilylovesbones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time they meet, Stiles is barely a toddler, aged three and still using her dad as support when she walks around the house. Derek snickers when he first lies eyes on her, mostly because she is not as strong as the rest of the children he’s usually surrounded by and falls to the ground crying and begging for her father to pick her up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On the First day

The first time they meet, Stiles is barely a toddler, aged three and still using her dad as support when she walks around the house. Derek snickers when he first lies eyes on her, mostly because she is not as strong as the rest of the children he’s usually surrounded by and falls to the ground crying and begging for her father to pick her up.

Truth is, they don’t even talk until she’s eight and her father finally marries his aunt Melissa, forcing the Stilinski family to relocate on Hale territory to keep them safe from any external threat. 

Her boxes are piled up in front of the door, resting peacefully for the Sheriff to pick them up and put them in her new room, the one standing right in front of Scott’s at the end of the corridor, on the other side of the house from where their mom and dad are going to sleep: she was used to having her dad right there for her in case of nightmares, something that has haunted little Stiles since early childhood, and she was going to have to deal with it. Because there was no way she was going to walk all the way to the North end of the house passing through that blasted hallway. No, thanks, she was going to behave like a good girl and fight off her monsters by herself.

Derek is twelve when the move happens, too worried about finishing up his summer work to then head out to the lake with his cousin George, a boy of sixteen fresh from getting his driving licence who has promised him and their cousin Carrie, to partecipate. Except Laura pulls a puppy face and he’s sucked into helping out. 

Three hours later he’s dead tired, his homework are still resting on the table and his chance for a day at the lake is gone. He looks down at the paper, despair pouring from his eyes, when he notices that the gaps he had to fill on the page have already been neatly filled, though the writing is a little lopsided and unsure. Derek looks around the room, seemingly empty, until his eyes catch a red booth appearing from under the couch. 

When he focuses his hearing, he can distinctively make out the sound of a video game being played, so he stands from his sit and goes on all four, trying to find out who was hiding in the room. When the voice comes out it startles him, though he is a wolf and should always be prepared.

“I was getting bored. And you work is pretty easy” Stiles says with her eyes still deeply focused on the Pokemon game playing out in front of her. She usually can’t coordinate really well, but her hands jump from a button to the other as if they were designed to do exactly that.

‘You shouldn’t have” Derek replies “I had to do it myself”

“And I was supposed to carry the boxes inside, but you did it for me” her eyes snap up from the gameboy to lock with his “It only seemed fair. Plus we’re pack now, and pack helps each other”

Derek doesn’t really know what to say, so he just keeps quiet. This is probably the longest conversation they’ve shared in five years and he really doesn’t know how to keep it up. And he really wants to keep it up, because Stiles is different, he knows that now, something is pulling him towards the little girl, like a set of string that has always been there, unseen.

Instead he shuts up and goes back to the table, forcing himself to do the following day’s homework.

Their silent friendship ends in September, when Scott and Stiles are moved to the same school the other Hale kids attend: the boy was supposed to go there at the beginning of elementary school, but nothing had convinced him to leave Stiles behind. The first day she listens to both her dad and Melissa lecturing them about behaving in the new environment and to go directly to either Derek or Laura if someone bothered them.

At lunch time, Scott has already bonded with a little boy named Matt, leaving Stiles and her insecurities sitting on a different table. She knew it was going to happen, sooner or later, she wasn’t stupid enough to expect her best friend aka stepbrother to stuck with her the whole time.

What she did not expect was for Derek to ditch his friends and sit right next to her, trying to engage her in a conversation he didn’t really want to have. It was plain to see to Stiles that her new cousin wasn’t really one for talking. So she started talking instead.

She never stopped. And he never complained.


	2. She Drives Me Normal

When Derek is sixteen, Kate Argent comes into town. 

Stiles doesn’t see any difference in his behavior, that is until he says he can’t meet her for one of their weekly meet up to watch a movie at the local cinema. In the four years they’ve been friend, Derek never once ditched her.

The first time, it doesn’t bother her: she’s used to Scott going off with Matt and his other friends leaving her behind with their parents and their little brother. Stiles loves little Isaac, but she’s twelve now and can’t really relate to a four-year old whose only purpose in life is that to damn his mother’s existence until she gives in and produces a cookie out of nowhere.

The second time, she’s mad because she really wanted to go and see Transformers: they had talked about it for months, about all the things they were expecting to be in it after growing up watching the cartoons right after school when Disney channel offered nothing worth watching. Instead she goes with Melissa, who keeps on asking her who is who and what is it exactly they are trying to do.

By the third time, she doesn’t even bother going to the phone when her father tells her he is at the phone. She ignores him at the weekly family reunion, spending the time with Laura and George and discussing what they are going to do after they finish with high school and college. Derek does not watch longingly at his best friend, thank you very much.

It’s nearly three months into their dating that Kate tries to burn the house down. Luckily, nobody is at home because Stiles’ soccer game has been postponed and the family always attend every single match, from the first to the last one. The Sheriff locks her up, keeping himself from beating her ‘till the brink of death.

After that Derek shuts down. He still helps around the house, takes his little sister to dance classes and looks after his youngest cousins when his mother asks him to. He then secludes himself into his room until he has to go to school: sometimes Laura listens in, trying to find out what he does when he stays in his room. There’s no music coming out from his computer, nor weird sounds that would normally be expected to come out from a teenager’s room. 

In the end, it’s Stiles who drags him out. She starts screaming under his window, pretending to have fallen down and gotten hurt, because she knows he always comes when she’s not okay. Less than a minute after she first yells, Derek appears running down the stairs to crouch down next to her, words coming out of his mouth, demanding to know how bad it is and where it hurts. She stops yelling, dries her fake tears and stands up catching his hand, telling him she’s fine and just needs an ice cream.

When Kate is brought to trial, he holds her hand the whole time, thanking silently that she lets him squeeze as hard as he can to keep himself from standing up and start insulting her.

“It’s okay. It’s going to be fine” she whispers, though she knows the whole family can hear her, except for her dad and mom. Stiles still glances at them and sees Scott smiling at her, silently telling her to let Derek know that the pack is with him, no matter what he did.

Things go back to normal after that. Derek comes and picks Stiles up every friday evening to go watch a movie and then to have dinner in one of those drive-in fast foods the Sheriff has been banished from, a double portion of curly fries for the girl just because Derek doesn’t know how to say how sorry he is for doing what he did.

“You thought you were in love, it’s normal at your age” she says.

“At my age? I’m barely a few years older than you, Sarah” he retorts, immediately regretting his decision to use her given name. She hates it when it’s used, mostly because that’s one of the few things her mother has truly given to her before abandoning little Stiles and her father when she was one.

“Don’t you ever call me THAT again, got it?” her voice sinks lower and lower with every word and, for the first time in his entire life, Derek is scared: scared because she never reacts like this, never, not even when Scott’s friend Matt teases her for her boyish look or her complete lack of femininity. He’s scared because he’s afraid of hurting her by reminding her she doesn’t have her mom with her everyday. He tells her that and she laughs, laughs so much he has to remind Stiles she needs to breathe.

“I have a mom: Melissa is everything I could have ever hoped for and there’s not a day on whichI don’t thank God for giving her and Scott to my dad and I. Hadn’t it been for her, the Sheriff would have already abandoned me.”

“Why don’t you let me call you by your name?” he asks parking the car in front of her house, his aunt coming out on the porch to welcome them and offer Derek the usual cup of coffee he gets as a reward for dealing a whole day alone with Stiles.

“Because she gave it to me. She gave me a part of myself though she didn’t want to see it. A name doesn’t define the person, but it holds a meaning to who gives it to another person: Sarah must have meant something to her, something important, and yet I will never know what it truly means. That’s why I decided to go by Stiles and why the rest of the pack has always called me that” she explains, hopping off the car “Come on now, if we’re lucky enough we can beat Scott and Matt at Fifa!”

He follows her, his mind thinking about what she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI!!!!!
> 
> This story has been on my mind for quite some time now, so I really hope the time I've spent developing it all was worth it. Sooooo, tell me what you think!


	3. Four Years Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are accidents on the road, but not all of them are harmful.

When Stiles is sixteen, and Derek has been away in college for the past two years, Matt asks her out. It comes as a surprise, with all the pushing and pulling they’ve had going on since she first moved to elementary school.

She says yes, because she doesn’t know better, and it’s actually nice. They talk, something they never truly tried in all those afternoons Scott has left them alone in awkward silence, and it comes easy to her. Not as easy as with Derek, but it isn’t bad either. She still phones him right after Matt drops her off: she tells him all about the movie they’ve watched, how Matt couldn’t even finish his pizza and she had to finish his instead. She ignores the way her best friend tries to cut off the date description to focus on what she’s going to do during her summer break.

“We’re going to the lake house, as usual” she says, matter-of-factly.

“Even with little Matty around” Derek asks and he really tries not to sound too crabby.

“What’s the matter with you? I phoned you because I thought you’d be happy for me” she responds dropping on her bed, eyes rolling.

“I just think you deserve better than a jerk who’s been treating you like shit for the best part of your childhood!” he yells, nearly dropping the phone on the floor.

“Says the one who dated an homicidal bitch” she spits back, regretting immediately what has just come out her mouth “No, no, Derek, I didn’t mean it!”

The phone line goes dead.

They meet again when Derek comes back from Stanford. He does not try to throw daggers to the boy holding Stiles’ hand with his eyes, he really does not. And she doesn’t spend the most of her break trying to find out what he has been up to during the past four months they haven’t talked.

It pains him, not having his best friend to talk to. And he hates those flips his stomach seems to do every time he hears Stiles laughing in the room or she just sits, talking and gesticulating about her usual nonsense. Those butterflies people talk about? Yeah, he has been trying to suppress them for the past year an a half, around the same time he came back from college for the first time and finally realised that Stiles was actually a girl.

Stiles misses Derek. A lot. And she has tried to suppress the ignominious crush she has had for the past five years, she even started dating Matt to forget him. Which sort of worked, until he came back, with his stupid abs and face and smile, the few times he does smile. God, that stupid werewolf!

Yet when she finds how she’s in trouble, she jumps into her jeep and rushes off to Stanford, though it’s five hours away and she could’ve just gone off and confessed to her parents.

“Who the hell?” Derek yells from behind the door, he’s pissed because he hates being disturbed when he studies and she knows it. That’s how she knows he’s going to open the door up and yell at her. And she does need to be yelled at. She really messed up.

“I’m pregnant”  
He definitely does not faint. Not even a bit.

He threatens to kill Matt. He’s actually half way out the door, his phone ready to call the sheriff and Scott to help him find the jerk and bury his body. Stiles starts sobbing and he stops dead in his track. He’s engulfing her in a hug in no time at all.

“Shush, it’s going to be fine. I’m here. I’m here”

Derek drives her back home and tells her parents. This time he helps Melissa take the gun away from Stiles’ father, although he’d rather prefer letting him go to do it. Matt did deserve to pay for hurting his best friend, for forcing her into something so big without being there to help her out.

“Dad won’t find him. His family moved away two weeks ago, that’s why we had sex” she whispers from her bed, Derek laying right next to her holding onto her shirt.

“You shouldn’t have done it. You should have waited for someone worth you” he says “You need to sleep now. Both of you”

“I know I was an idiot, you don’t have to remind me” she turns around, burying her head in the crook of his neck “And you don’t have to be nice to me”

“You’re my best friend, no matter the mess you’re in. And I’m going to help you out with this, if you’ll let me” he says.

Derek is there the first week she goes back to school and for that he’s thankful to his great teachers who allowed him to skip off the first few weeks to help out. When he comes to pick her up, that’s the first time Derek sees her smiling again: she’s with Scott and his sister Natalie, bouncing around as her normal self. She is babbling about some tv show she loves, discussing about the pros and cons of watching BBC programs over others.

From then on, everything is a bit different, but they still manage. Derek comes home every weekend to make sure she’s ok and taking all her vitamins and to constantly remind her that no, it’s not okay to drive past the limit when you’re eight months pregnant. Her dad reminds the two of them that it’s not okay to do it even when you’re not pregnant.

“And you don’t even have to come here every week end to make sure I’m okay. I’ve got a whole pack looking after me” she says from the couch, a cup of ice cream balanced on her belly and a glass of juice on her left hand.

“Considering what happened last time I went away, I’m not even going to apologise” he responds dropping off right next to her “And give me some ice cream” 

Of course the peace doesn’t last. The Argent family moves into town a few weeks before Stiles’ due date and, of course, Scott falls head over heels in love with the Argent girl, also known as Kate’s niece, an expert in archery. The pack tells him to be careful, not to say too much or take her home with him; Derek can’t help but fall down into another bout of depression when he thinks again about that woman. Stiles throws him a pillow and orders him to help her to her room so she can beach like a whale.

“Good to see I’ve left my little girl in such good hands that she’s a teen mom” 

Derek turns around, his Beta senses tingling to attack the intruder when Stiles’ hand comes up to his chest to keep him in place.

“Hello, mother”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what crossed my mind when I wrote this.


	4. And Jackson makes three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this time I'm not even going to apologize: I have a thing for imaginary werewolves taking care of baby werelizards...

Jackson Harrison Stilinski sees his first day on a bright and sunny April day. His mother is dead tired after spending nearly two days with contractions and some twenty hours in the delivery room. Only positive thing about all this: Derek never once leaves her unattended, making sure she’s looked after by the many nurses Melissa has sent in over time to report to her directly, considering she’s not allowed to be in the room as nothing as mother.

Which gets kind of weird when Stiles’ biological mother appears in the waiting room holding an enormous teddy bear she especially had made for her first grandchild. Although she spent the past fifteen years and a half hiding away from prying eyes, Hagar Stilinski née Argent always loved making a scene. Especially in front of the very werewolf family her former husband had married into, dragging their baby girl with him.

“She hasn’t been your baby girl in a long time, Hagar” the Sheriff has to keep his voice down and make sure the nurses don’t notice him getting upset: they already threatened him to throw him out when Stiles practically yelled at him to keep away from her room and his sons had to force him into a chair, where Melissa proceeded to try and soothe him into tranquility once again.

“I gave birth to her. I have a say in her life choices” the woman replies sitting down as far away as possible from any member of the Hale family present in the room “You forced her to share her life with this...scum” she whispers the last word, well aware of the others' capacity to hear her no matter the tone she used.

“No, you don’t” Melissa McCall usually was a quiet and calm woman, but no one could say she was able to hold still when her family was in the line “You have no right whatsoever because you abandoned that girl. You left her, not even once trying to contact her or know what was up with her. And yet you suddenly come back when she least needs you”

“She’s having a baby! Of course she needs her mother”

“And she has her” Melissa answered angrily “I am her mother. Now you’re going to leave this hospital without even thinking of making a fuss because, no matter what sort of weapons or moves you know how to use, I have a really tight friendship with the guards over here and I’ll have no trouble calling in a few favours”

After delivering her speech, Melissa Stilinski held her husbands hand trying her best to keep her smile at bay when she heard Scott and Isaac complimenting her and exchanging an high five for the cool mother they had been gifted with. She also ignored Laura and Amelia’s growling at Hagar the whole time the woman took to walk out of the waiting room.

They didn’t even hear Derek come into the room, a small bundle resting peacefully in his arms. His face held no emotion, as it usually did, but his eyes filled with joy and pride when he announced the arrival of a boy to the family. The boy’s uncles crowded around them, cooing at the newcomer whilst the Sheriff and Melissa came nearer to take a peak at their first grandchild. Naturally the first questions following the sight of little Jackson were about Stiles and her current condition. Derek assured the whole family she was doing just fine, sleeping deeply after having to be convinced to let go of her son to rest for a while.

That was the night Derek swore to never leave their side. 

“Who’s the most beautiful boy in the world? Who is it, Jack?” Isaac said for the twelfth time in a row.  
“I swear if you don’t stop repeating it I’m going to rip your throat out. With my teeth!” Derek threatened coming nearer to the two boys to pick up Jackson and lay him down into his crib for his afternoon nap. Stiles had started attending school six weeks after giving birth and during that period Derek managed to get transferred to the nearest community college . He had already completed most of his exams in Stanford and his classes over there had ended some time around March, allowing him to write down his dissertation mostly from home.

“You are just jealous because Jackson prefers me over you” Isaac retorted focusing once again on his Maths homework for the following day.

“As if” Stiles interrupted the glaring coming from Derek dropping right next to him on the couch abandoning her backpack on the floor, spending the following five minutes trying to toe off her shoes unsuccessfully. She gave up, deciding to rest her head on Derek’s shoulder instead and sighing in distress.

“Your mom again?” he asks passing her one of the cookies his mother had prepared the same morning for the her sister and her family. Stiles accepted it, gulping it down in two bites.

“She ambushed me in front of school. She wanted to talk to me about the family business”

“Hunting and killing werewolves” he says looking over at Jackson’s crib to make sure the boy still slept “Nice business”

“She wants me to go with her. Take Jackson and learn how to get rid of you. She didn’t take it lightly when I told her I wasn’t going to kill my family” Stiles responded standing up and moving over to her son’s crib to look at him. Somehow staring at Jackson always calmed her down, sort of like when Derek used to read her stories when she had a fever as a child “I want my son to grow up where he’s loved. And this means the pack”

“Did she threaten you?” he asks her moving next to her, his chin resting on her shoulder and his eyes counting once again Jackson’s fingers. He always had to make sure he had ten in his hands and ten in his feet.

“Nope. I threatened her” she answered picking Jackson up when the little boy opened his eyes and gurgled at the sight of his mother.

“That was stupid, even for you” 

“I might be smart when it’s about research but I don’t have the best record of self preservation” she states “After all, my family is mostly composed by werewolves. My brothers, my cousins, my best friend”

“Jackson is not going to be one. Maybe she doesn’t want him to become one of us”

“He’s not going to be, unless he wants to” Stiles says.

“What are you talking about? Jackson is just a baby, Stiles” Derek asks.

“Your mom and I talked. If Jackson wants the bite when he’s older, then I’m not going to complain” Stiles explained, passing the child to Derek to go to the kitchen and pick up his milk. She had wanted to talk to Derek about it, if only because he was his best friend and the boy’s godfather. Hell, he had been more of a father to her son than his biological father was probably ever going to be. 

“You should have told me” Derek whispered, his eyes focused on the boy’s. When he first found out Stiles was pregnant, he had promised to himself he was going to be there the whole time, to make sure they were both okay and looked after: he didn’t know how the smart, brave girl he had known as his best friend for years could be so careless to get pregnant at sixteen. But he didn’t care now because he could see how Jackson’s arrival had somehow helped the girl deal with her usually well-hidden anxiety. She no longer worried about her father’s diet, leaving it to his mother’s caring hands and throwing all of herself into having an healthy pregnancy.

Knowing Stiles had gone behind his back and discussed something so important as Jackson taking the bite with his mother, well, that made him feel betrayed. Even more than with Kate. Because he was Jackson’s dad, no matter genetics telling him otherwise.

“I know I should have told you” Stiles said, Jackson in her arms sucking dutifully at his thumb waiting to be fed.

“You don’t have to tell me everything that concerns your son” he says and it pains him so very much to have to even think he has no place in the boy’s life “But when I said I was going to be there for the two of you, I meant it. I’m going to be there, no matter what”

Stupid hormones. She tried to fight of the tears, successfully keeping them in and managing a sort of a smile when responding to him.

“I’m so glad you only find the words when you really need them. It makes me realise how glad I am you never speak the rest of the time” Stiles says waiting for her son to finish his afternoon snack and then putting him back to nap after burping him.

Scott comes home battered and bloodied after lacrosse practice finding them on the couch, his stepsister sleeping heavily on his cousin’s body.


	5. UhOh We're In Trouble

Times goes on with Jackson steadily growing into a babbling mess and Stiles worrying about her finals. Luckily Derek is there to tend to their every needs, whether it is coffee for the exhausted young mother or a car ride to fall asleep for the little boy.

When summer comes, Stiles gets to spend most of her days with her son. She enjoys the long walks they have around the preserve, Jackson strapped securely to her chest while she gets to simply enjoy the nature surrounding her: she grew up in these woods, chasing Scott and their cousins during the endless family gatherings they used to hold every July.

“I knew I would find you here” Derek appeared from behind her, a bag in his right hand and one of the tomes he has taken up to go around with in the other.

“Though Jack here might have enjoyed some sun” she replied while one of her hands instinctively moves to the boy’s head to make sure no sun ray disturbs his scrutiny of the area. Derek moves the book to his other hand and puts his arm around Stiles’ shoulders, directing her to a clearance in the tree’s shadows.

“You hungry? I brought sandwiches, potato salad and a bottle for the little lizard” he said putting a tablecloth to the ground and motioning for his friend to sit down. He produces the food out of the backpack and hands her a bottle of water and her cell phone “You know you should always keep it with you”

“Sorry, left in a hurry. Hagar threatened to come visit her ‘beloved grandchild’ and I had no intention of being found home alone. And why the hell do you keep on calling my son lizard?”

Stiles laughed because he had explained it to her so many times in the past few months that she had grown used to him rolling his eyes and patiently explaining for the upteenth time. Somehow he never got angry when he pestered her. No, Stiles, don’t go back there again! You are a mum now and have no time whatsoever to have the hots for your best friend.

“And again: it just suits him. Doesn’t it, lizard?” Derek moved swiftly to pick the baby up, putting him on his lap and trying to find his bottle without losing eye contact with Stiles. He then remembered the part of the discussion about her mother and frowned. He didn’t like her, and not only because she was an hunter but mostly because she had left John and Stiles.

He thought about it, incapable of finding a reason why anyone would want to abandon the most selfless man on Earth and the most perfect human being he had ever met.

“I’m not perfect” Stiles commented munching her sandwich “And you should know that you think out loud when you feed Jackson”

“What? No, I don’t!” he tried to defend himself, his ears going slightly pink. Derek turned around to position Jackson somewhere where he could stand upright while waiting to be burped, his eyes diverting every time Stiles moved in his line of vision.

“Stop it!”

“It’s actually funny. I find it endearing”  
“Big words there, Stiles. You might want to rest a bit” he smirked snatching away her bottle.

“That’s mine” she said launching herself at him and landing on his chest “I want my bottle”.

“Nope” he responded shaking his head “God, you’re heavy”

“Asshole”

Only when they both finished laughing Derek realised the position they were in: Stiles was flush against his chest, her arms caging him to the ground, their faces centimetres away. He could feel her warm breath on his cheek, her heart rate spiking and skipping a beat when he accidentally moved forward.

“Ok” she whispered “I’m going to kiss you now”

He didn’t answer, there was really no question to be answered. He sealed his lips with hers, taking a few seconds to savour the moment he didn’t even know he had been waiting for for years. She tasted like tomatoes-he should thank Melissa later for suggesting a lighter stuffing to the turkey he had wanted for lunch- but the smell of mint and daisies still lingered around her. Stiles had always smelled like those herbs and flowers that used to grown around the house when they were little.

“Dada” 

...  
...  
...

“Did he just say...?” Stiles was panting but her eyes were focused on Jackson. She scrambled to her feet and rushed to the the baby picking him up “You SPOKE! Derek, he spoke!”

Derek stood up and joined them, his arms worming their way around Stiles’ waist. Jackson was smiling and gurgling happily, his hands flailing in front of his face as his mother cooed him.

“Well, done lizard!” he murmured as his head moved to rest on Stiles’ shoulder to look at the child better. She was smiling, turning his way every now and then as if saying He can speak. My baby speaks. Her cheeks were still slightly coloured red, but her breathing was even and her heart was thumping loudly in happiness.

And when Jackson repeated DADA looking straight into his face...well, he did not tighten his hold on Stiles. And he most definitely did not beam up with pride.

Obviously, that was the day everything went to shit.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The house was a mess. The once tidy living room Melissa cleaned up regularly to give the impression a normal family, and not a group of messy werewolves, lived in the house. The pictures usually resting on the mantelpiece, the one of her father and mother’s wedding, Isaac and Jackson’s births and Scott’s junior high graduation, were reversed on the floor smudged with blood.

Derek smelled it a mile away from the house, but managed to keep his cool not to scare Stiles nor Jackson. He convinced them to go back at the Hales’ for some time, maybe to help Amelia prepare dinner or just rest a bit more away from home. His mother didn’t question his lie when he said he was going to the grocery store to pick something up, nor did she ask when he left ruffling the child’s head while gently pecking Stiles. 

“I’ll be right back” he hollered right outside the door, his hand reaching for hid phone and his fingers rapidly hitting the buttons to call the Sheriff at the station. When sergeant Miller picked up John’s private phone Derek knew things had gone bad.

The front door appeared to be intact, no sign of breaking and entering not struggle on either part. Jackson’s smell was strong, mingled with that of his grandparents’, his uncles’ and Stiles’, but there was a pungent one that made him see red. He couldn’t pick up why exactly, he just knew it disturbed him.

A noise suddenly came from upstairs and had Derek move quickly but carefully in its direction; he knew the house by heart, one of the perks of being Stiles’ friend -or boyfriend. Or love of her life. He wasn’t really that picky and he should probably sort it out with both her and his wolf in a different moment.

“Melissa!” he opened the door of the in-wall wardrobe in his uncle and aunt’s room finding the woman tied up resting against the wall, her hands constricted in a tight knot behind her back and a t-shirt stuffed in her mouth to keep her from calling for help.

“They took John” she said as soon as the gag was removed “He tried to stop them, but they had chloroform and he fought them but they were stronger. Derek, they took him!” there was panic in her voice, he didn’t need to hear her heartbeat to sense it.

“It’s ok. We’ll find him” he hugged her close while helping her to stand up “We’ll go to mum and she’ll sort it out”

“They wanted him, Derek”

“We’ll bring him home” he promised on the way to the car.

“No, you don’t understand...they wanted Jackson” 

He definitely DID speed back to his mum’s house as fast as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know. It took me months. Life got in the way...doesn't it always? Anyway, I would like to thanks all the readers, both old and new, who spared some time to comment or leave kudos-God, I love this word: I'd like to be able to use it more in everyday life, but only a few of my friends know English, so....nope. And yes, I babble. A lot. Especially when it's 1:30 in the morning on a weekday and I'm supposed to write a 2,500 words essay on the evolution of female magazine. Why waste time on my academic career when I can go on and on about Sterek???  
> Hope you enjoy this one. And if you don't....well, everyone has different tastes and who am I to judge! :-)
> 
> PS Do you too get annoyed when it automatically corrects those words spelled in British English? It bothers me SOOOO much!


	6. Papa Bear Growls Again

“How is she?”

“Sleeping at last” Derek answered sitting at the table scattered with maps and drawings of aborted plans “At least lizard is not making a fuzz” 

He thought about the baby fast asleep in his cot next to his distraught mother, hands clutching is plush wolf as he dreamt of better things. The rest of the family had left to search the territory for John, but his sisters and Scott had returned empty handed after a few hours spent around looking for some trace or smell. Even uncle Peter and aunt Stella had been called in from a few counties over to help out yet none of the wolves seemed able to find any evidence of where the sheriff might have been taken to.

“You should sleep too: Stiles doesn’t need you to look like shit” 

“You are always very kind with words, Laura” Talia entered the living room carrying a tray of food and beverages “ Eat up. I need you to be at your best if we have to get John back by force”

“Do you think it will come down to a fight, mom?” Laura asked. He was glad his sister had maintained the ability to read into his mind even after years spent away from the pack in New York: she had flown in as soon as she had heard about John’s kidnapping, barging into the front door with an well-planned idea of what to do and demanding a cookie. She had always been able to find an excuse to eat more than necessary, and apparently a distressing situation gave her free reign over their mother’s cooking.

“I can’t be sure, not with Hagar” the Alpha replied sincerely “As more time passes, my idea of Chris being the only sane member of his family increases: his father has always been a psychopath” the so was Kate left unsaid for Derek’s sake “ Hagar was trained old school, so I can only imagine that it’s not going to be easy”

“Maybe I should go with her”

Stiles. 

She had learned quickly how to not make herself heard, something that had come in handy those few times Scott and her had made it back home past their curfew; a family of werewolves was something to behold when one of those still considered cubs was not returned to the bed in time and Melissa had inherited the particular trait. 

She had mastered the art of a steady breathing, stealthy walking and had memorized which floorboard would squeak when walked over: she had bragged about it so many times with Derek that he was not surprised when he saw her standing in the doorway still wearing her nightgown over a pair of dark-blue jeans and her favourite target shirt. Her hair, usually held up in a ponytail since she had missed her bi-monthly appointment with scissors, was scattered around her face and Derek had to restrain himself from standing up and putting the escaped locks behind her ear.

“No” Laura and Talia said together “That’s exactly what she wants”

“She knows you’d do anything to get your dad back” Derek told her “We’re going to find your father and she is never going to see either Jackson or you”

She huffed while she slightly nodded, silently promising to the pack she was not going to act without their full support. Stiles wasn’t so naive to believe she would survive a confrontation with hunters by herself.

“But why would she want Jacks? He is just a baby, my baby, and if Hagar had wanted to raise one she could have just stayed and raised me” 

“And grow without us? My, Stiles, your life would have been so boring. Plus, we would have had to deal with a pining Derek until he finally got to meet you and I would have probably not survived that. His angst would have been too much to handle” Laura joked trying to diffuse the tension, stealing a smile laugh from the other girl in the room.

Derek had tried his best to suppress any memory of their kiss until John was safely returned home, but it had been nearly three days now and he had been keeping his feelings in for nearly two years: after Kate, he buried himself in his studies allowing Stiles only into his life and that had made him understand how lost he would be without her by his side. But her father was missing, his whole family looking for the man while preparing from an imminent fight and his feelings would have to come later.

Still, it was hard when Stiles managed to look beautiful without having slept more than six hours in two days while caring for a baby, handling a worried thirteen-year old of a brother and suggesting plans of attack. God, he wanted to kiss her again.

He had been lost in thought and hadn’t noticed Stiles coming close to him, lacing her hand with his and resting her head on his shoulder.

“Angst doesn’t look good on your face” she whispered softly before kissing his cheek.

“Stiles, I suggest you keep from kissing my son if we want his brain to keep working” Talia laughed as she gently tapped Laura’s shoulder to have her follow to the kitchen.

“God, just a peck and he’s already in overdrive” Laura said through muffled laughter..

Ok, worst family on Earth was all Derek could think of.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark. And it was over his mind supplied. Never again was John letting Isaac and Scott come up with a compilation for their vacation trips. Of all the things he should probably have thought as he woke up with sore wrists and a throbbing head, Adele’s song was not the first on the helpful list. 

Especially when he smelled the gasoline.

So, something was going to be set on fire, but he could positively guess it was not going to be the rain, and the fact that he was inside in a dark room was only fifty per cent of the reason why he firmly concluded that he was going to die: the smell was coming from him.

No natural light in sight, which meant no windows, concrete floors wet with inflammable substances, chains on the walls and coming from the ceiling.

Yep, Old Smith’s barn just outside of Beacon Hills. He still remembered when the man had been arrested for animal abuse a few years back after a little boy had reported his dog’s disappearance; the man had been clearly insane, courtesy to nearly twenty years spent with only a few cows in a secluded place with small human interaction.

The place had looked like a nightmare with all those animals inside, but it still gave him the chills when empty, probably because of the stale smell of death lingering around.

“Oh, you decided to wake up”

“Well, I’ve always been a heavy sleeper” John said mockingly towards the figure walking to him “Now, Hagar, my old eyes would appreciate some light”

He heard the click of the lamp being turned on and saw the face of his former wife come into view with a horrific shadow cast upon her feature. John couldn’t help but think she resembled Stiles, with her full whisky-brown eyes and flowing hair. Although their daughter had soon decided to maintain a short cut, he still had on his desk one of the few pictures of Stiles with long, brown hair, hair so similar to her biological mother’s.

“You know how much I hate to do this” the woman said “But I need Sarah to see how bad it can get if she still frequents certain...circles”

“You will only make her see how disgusting it is what you do” the Sheriff spat back, his eyes fiery with pride at the thought of his daughter rejecting a hunter’s life.

“John, John, John. You could never understand, could you? My job is to keep the world clean from monsters, nothing else. And as mother, it is my job to protect my daughter” Hagar walked closer to the man with a sharp knife in hand, caressing John’s cheek with it and the stopping at his neck.

“Your job was to be there, but it was too boring for you: a husband and a child, everyday routine and no killing. It wasn’t enough for you, was it? If it weren’t for Stiles, I wish I had never asked you out, but then I think how horrible my life would be without her and only thank God that you ran away”

“I didn’t run away” Hagar tried to defend herself “I left”

“You ran. You might know how to kill, but you don’t know how to love, that’s why you left. You couldn’t handle a family” 

“I have a family”

“Cold-hearted bastards, that’s what they are. Nothing else”

“Shut up” she yelled.

John’s arms were bound behind his back, close to where his gun was supposed to be. He had been getting ready to leave home after lunch with his wife, his firearm still resting in the locked drawer in their room where he usually kept it away from Isaac. 

God, he was going to miss his son’s lacrosse game. And Scott was going to be first line in the next one.

Stiles was going to be so mad at him for bailing out on her with her shopping trip planned with Natalie and Cora. 

Well, at least Derek was going to be there for his little girl and his grandson. He was so pissed for not being able to see his first birthday: he had managed to convince Melissa it would be nice to have the boy’s room redecorated as present. The one he had put up with his sons and Derek’s help had been a rushed work because of interminable work hours and he had swore to take some days off just to complete the project.

“Damn” he whispered as he lost conscience once more.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dad!? Dad, please wake up! Dad!

Slap.

“Ouch” John said as he woke up. His vision was still blurry at best, but he could easily make out Scott and Laura standing above him, their faces slightly bruised and, in Laura’s case, covered in quite a few cuts. She sensed his worry and smiled.

“Battle wounds to wear proudly. Until they heal, at least” she explained.

“Mom is going to kill you for worrying her” Scott greeted him back to the living world with a hug he had to stop right away because of his ribs.

“That she’s gonna do” he simply replied.

“Come on, we’re going home” Laura said. For the first time John looked at their surrounding, noticing they had left the barn and were now outside, the stars shining in the sky and the full moon standing proudly in the horizon.

Four days had passed, if he remembered the lunar cycle correctly. Luckily he had learned to keep track as soon as Scott had become part of his family.

“Stiles and Jackson are safe: Derek hasn’t left them out of his sight” Laura explained as she helped the Sheriff into her car.  
“Papa bear through and through” John murmured eliciting a small laugh from his step-son and niece.

“Now he growls if someone takes Jackson for longer than five minutes” Scott said.

“Well, he’d better suck it up, because I intend to smother my daughter and grandson in hugs” John explained, his eyes growing heavy with tiredness as his body ached all over.

He was going home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear, I haven't died.   
> But life gets in the way and I can't emotionally handle season three: it's like someone decided to erase all happiness from a certain area of California.   
> But the sassiness! The sassiness is majestic and running through the Hales' bloodstream.


	7. Now

Jackson is left at home the day Hagar is buried, firstly because he has no real connection with a grandmother who never wanted to be one and secondly because Stiles doesn’t want any of his first memories to be connected with death. 

Plus, to everyone and Jackson in particular, Melissa will forever be his grandma: no need for someone who hadn’t been a mother at all to usurp a title rightfully belonging to someone else, especially when it’s Melissa Hale you’re talking about.

Derek waits by the entrance alley with the car, eyes staring towards the lot Stiles and Chris Argent are watching the simple casket being lowered into the ground.

There’s only the two of them standing at the foot of the “hill” where the Hale mausoleum stands proudly to look over the town of Beacon Hill- and isn’t it funny, that the Hales are as a matter of fact the light keeping their hell-hole of a town out of darkness- pretending to listen to the babbling priest stuttering out an eulogy for a woman everyone wants to forget ever existed.

Well, maybe not everyone. As John had repeatedly pointed out when Stiles had complained about her missing mother, without Hagar there would have been no Stiles. No Jackson. 

The what ifs where endless in the Stilinski equation What if Chris had helped his cousin break it off with the family? What if Melissa had never moved back with the pack? What if Stiles had never been born?

And what if Hagar had stayed? Maybe she would have been a totally different person. No worry over her brothers sprouting fangs on the full moon or hurting someone with their excessive strength. She might have grown up to become the stereotypical small town girl, with naivety to spare and a worried set of parents back home when she left for college.

Stiles wouldn’t have grown up with the pack, surrounded by love and affection. No Laura, no George. No Derek. A puppet in her mother’s hands raised to loathe what she had called since childhood her world.

No. There was no universe where she would have liked being a different Stiles, someone whose family hadn’t shaped her very existence.

Her eyes darted from the casket to where she instinctually knew Derek was standing, just to make sure he was still where he said he would be. The breath that had caught in her lungs came out, allowing her to inhale an unexpected bout of cold air.

The priest caught her attention when he moved towards her to present his sincere condolences. She shook his hand keeping quiet as she tried to preserve that bubble of silence that had enveloped her when he started talking.

“We have some her stuff back at home. My daughter found them when we moved here and I thought you might want to have a look” Chris spoke to her for the first time since he nodded in acknowledgment when they had met at the cemetery’s entrance.

“Thanks, but no thanks” she replied trying to contain the coldness in her voice. Chris had tried to help after all, no need to be misbehaved with him “Just make sure there’s no weird stuff there and give it away”

The man nodded one last time and simply left.

Hagar Argent  
Born 1969  
Died 2013

No beloved on her grave for she hadn’t been for a long time. 

Stiles thought about those few and far moment when the Sheriff would tell her stories of how he had met what was to become her mother.

They had met at college thanks to common friends, dated throughout their university years and married off as soon as John finished his training. He smiled fondly when telling her the tale of how they found out they where going to have her: he fainted, waking up to Hagar laughing her ass off at him.

The couple was elated when they found out they were going to have a girl and her mother planned everything in advance, from the clothes she was going to dress her baby girl in to the decoration of the nursery-the purple elephants might have been an indication of Hagar’s insanity: who in their right mind painted purple, DANCING elephants in a baby’s nursery?

But then, a few months in the pregnancy, her behavior changed. It was no surprise to John when he woke up for a feeding mid-night and found out his wife had left them.

Thinking about the woman she had met just a few months earlier, Stiles couldn’t find anything in common with the Sheriff’s stories. Two women who could never be the same, and yet still her mother.

“You okay?”

Ok, fine, he was getting a bell for Christmas and he was going to wear it for her sake, because if Derek and his family kept this appearing-out-of-nowhere act up she was going to get a coronary before her twentieth birthday.

“Seriously, you need to stop this. No enhanced wolfiness here, dude”

Derek ignored her, preferring instead to settle his chin onto her shoulder to then encircle her in a protective hug from behind. The warmth was enough for her to melt in his arms.

“I was thinking we could take Jackson somewhere, now that your dad is back home. I have to go down to Stanford to present my thesis and then I have a few days off. What do you think?” Derek suggested as they made their way to the car to head home, where half of the Hale pack would be waiting with plans to distract Stiles with.

“Well, I’m sure Jackson would like to spend some time off to Disneyland with his mum and dad” 

She got in the car smiling, knowing full well she had just managed to break him even though it would take Derek a few seconds to register what she had just said.

The man followed her inside the Toyota- no, he definitely did not buy it because there was no way the car seat would fit better than into the Camaro. He didn’t- a grin plastered on his face.

“Are you okay, Sourwolf? You’ve got this weird expression on your face. One might think you were actually, I don’t know, smiling!?”

“Just thinking about which enormous plush toy our son would like better...Do you think someone produces Loki ones?” he replied never taking his eyes away from the road ahead, though the smile that had settled had yet to recede.

Stiles didn’t ask about that, but she was firmly convinced it had to do with the marathon of superhero films her brothers had subjected Jackson to to distract him from the lack of grandpa attention he wasn’t getting. 

“You’re going to spoil him to death, aren’t you?”

“You bet!”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Life started to flow normally after a while.

John returned to his job normally, albeit missing all the particular attention he had gotten while segregated to bed.

Stiles started online classes with every intention to enroll full-time by the time September rolled around again, waiting to immerse completely in her English Lit. and Mythology classes without having to worry about Jackson. A friend of the family had offered to take the boy in one of her nursery classed, but Talia had adamantly refused.

“No grandson of mine will go to nursery: I’ll look after him until Derek or Stiles can come and get him for the night”

And no, her heart didn’t enlarge threefold when her boyfriend’s mother called her son that. 

Although she might have expected that reaction when she found out Talia had helped Derek when planning how to ask her and Jackson to move in.

“I’m going to build a house that’s just for us, but it’s going to take me some time so I thought you could move into the manor while we wait” he had said to convince her, but she was a goner when he mentioned moving in together in the first place.

Derek ended up moving into the Stilinskis’ house to ease Jackson into the idea of him being with them full time.

“As if he didn’t spend enough time with them already” the Sheriff muttered when Stiles presented the plan to him and Melissa one evening at dinner.

And the fact that there would only be two set of wolf ears inside the house did kind of help Derek making a decision.

“Scotty and Isaac will just have to deal. If I can stand Scott and his new girlfriend, then he can learn to handle Derek and myself”

Thinking about her brother’s sexual life made her want to vomit: there were things no sister ever wanted to know about her siblings. If she was lucky enough, the new house would be ready for them to move out when time for Isaac to hook up came, and with his looks Stiles was sure her brother was going to start young.

She had to give it to her parents: they had produced three good-looking kids, especially those sharing genes with the Hale pack.

“I’m just thankful to have the one daughter. One threat talk was enough. Though I was probably more scared than Derek when that happened” John mentioned one day.

Oh, right.

Wait. What?

“Dad, when did you talk to Derek about us? I’m quite sure he never mentioned something like that” she asked while cutting the tomatoes for George’s infamous pasta sauce. 

“Well, the trial was still on at the time, so you must have been, what, thirteen? Maybe fourteen”

“He other things to think about at the time, dad. And his step-cousin was definitely not one of them, especially when you think we hadn’t talked for months before then” she replied scoffing. Her dad was already starting to get confused about events. Great.

“Kid, trust me when I say this: that Argent girl was a huge mistake, but something good came out of it. She made him realise things sooner than we all expected; we had a bet on and she made me loose it, and she made me give my scary-father talk sooner than I hoped”

Could it be? No, surely her dad was wrong. Stiles thought about anything that might have given away Derek’s feelings for her through the years but she came up empty handed.

“I can feel you thinking from the living room”

“Ahhh!” she screamed “Enough! We’re getting that bell tomorrow. And it’s going to have a fuchsia collar, just to humiliate you”

“You always say I look good in pink!” Derek murmured before kissing her sweetly.

“Find me something you don’t look good in, I challenge you” she replied smiling softly “And...”

“Does it really matter?” he interrupted her while searching her hands with his “ All it matter is now”

Now.

Stiles really liked now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the end is approaching fast. Or it will be when I sort out all the plans I have to finish this story. Let me know what you think, what you would like to see or just come say HI. BTW, I don't know if I've already published it, but here's my tumblr, if you wanna come and have a look http://onthemerethewailingdiedaway.tumblr.com/


	8. Stay With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And here comes the ending the few of you who've remained waited for *cue: it's been 84 years gif*

And so it goes:

Stiles graduates in the top 5% of her class and wears the gown proudly as her son and boyfriend yell louder that the whole pack when her name– her full name– is called up the stage: she beams, ignoring the massacre the teacher’s pronunciation is making, and collects the paper that mean she has just joined the group of the forever in debt.

But who cares about what the future is holding when her Jackson is screaming “Mummy!” at the top of his lungs as Derek and Laura try to prevent him from smashing down on the pavement.

Who cares when her dad and mum–because Jackson calling Melissa grandma further gives her reason to call her that– look so proudly at her, shaking their heads when Scott and Isaac so maturely start laughing when one of Stiles’ fellow graduates trips over his own feet and falls down.

Who cares when Derek comes forward with their son trying to escape his grip to kiss the living hell out of her.

“I’m so proud of you” he whispers as he passes Jackson over “Aren’t we, Lizard?”

“Mummy! Can we have ice cream now?”

“So much for education: trampled already by milkshakes” Stiles laughs.

The pack gives her time to go home and get changed before their celebratory dinner out– at Chucky ‘n’ Cheese, because letting a four-year-old pick seemed like such a wise choice at the time– , and Stiles finally breathes freely. All the tension slowly seeps out of her as she watches Derek put Jackson down for his afternoon nap while muttering that Scott should know not allow his nephew to pump his ice cream with toppings.

“Oh, stop it you” she gently smacks him on the chest as he comes to rest his forehead on hers “It’s a special day”

“Mmm. I know. But he won’t be the one who has to convince Lizard to go to bed tonight” he kisses her slowly, just he way he does every morning when he leaved to go to work.

He wakes up first, always has, and prepares them breakfast after a quick shower. Then it’s time to wake, dress, and feed Jackson, who is then put in front of the TV for morning cartoons as he waits for his dad to take him to pre-K. The whole routine has become a routine quickly after they moved to Berkley three years prior, when Stiles started attending on-campus class.

Stiles usually starts stirring when Derek leaves the room, but she likes to hear the house come alive with the soft voices of her boys as she stands quietly in bed going over the plan for the day. Plus, her wonderful boyfriend usually comes to check up on her, concluding the waking up process with a quick, but nonetheless wonderful, kiss on the lips.

“You know, mum and dad offered to take him for a couple of days” she informs him, and it’s not her fault Derek looks so good in a shirt she can’t wait to see him out of it: she goes for the top button and starts undoing it, moving down punctuating every move with a peck on his face.

“You know we’re going to be late, right?” there’s absolutely no sign of reprimand in his tone, in fact he goes along by picking her up, legs around his hips and arms circling his neck in a loving embrace. 

The bedroom is further down the corridor from Jackson’s room– something they’re really thankful for whenever they feel like it which, in their case, is whenever their son is asleep and neither of them is too tired from working or studying– and Derek kicks the door closed as soon as they enter just to then slam Stiles into it.

“Care to be a little less noisy? Not ready for the…Ahhh, yes” she stops when Derek’s lips start sucking gently on her neck “Not ready for the birds and the bees yet”

“We’ll let Isaac handle it” she knows he’s smirking even though she can’t see him, head tilted back chasing the pleasure of finally being able to enjoy her lover’s attention after two weeks spent on books.

And then, as things start get interesting, Derek stills.

Stiles still has her eyes closed, and she wants to protest because she deserves this, she deserves some time with the love of his life alone, but no, because the door cracks open and the first most beautiful man of her life comes into the room.

Jackson’s sporting a magnificent example of bed hair despite having slept barely twenty minutes, one tiny fist holding his plushie fox right above his heart as he woozily raises his other hand in a sign that has become known in the family as an order to pick him up.

Stiles can’t help but giggle at the scene, while Derek’s response is to shake his head and roll his eyes before whispering in her ear like mother, like son.

So there she is, on the afternoon of her graduation day, lazily lying on her bed with the most important things she has in the world thinking that she couldn’t be luckier. And then the bastard goes and ruins it.

“Hey, Lizard, is it okay if I marry mummy?” 

And Stiles suddenly realizes that this is where everything was headed all along, since that torrid afternoon when she stubbornly finished his homework because she wanted her new ‘cousin’ to talk to her.

It was coming when he broke her heart at fourteen and Derek ignored her for Kate.

It was coming when she tried to move on and got pregnant and he moved closer to help her.

It was coming when he said Fuck It and kissed her in the woods, her baby boy happily sitting between them.

“Ok” is all Jackson says, because to him his parents are his parents, no matter them not being married or Derek not being his real dad– and won’t that be a pain in the ass to explain when he’s all grown up? And so her life is decided by a dozing child and wolf.

“Do I get to have a say in this?” she asks when air finally starts flowing back into her lungs “Because it’s obviously yes, but I would’ve liked to at least have a shimmer of choice”

Derek lifts his head, and all he can do is laugh, not only because he is in love with this wonderful, sarcastic, loyal, and talkative woman, but because of course their proposal was never going to be a traditionally staged one.

He felt like asking, and so he did. Well, not really.

“Hey, Sarusia, will you marry me?” 

“Oh, well, I got nothing else to do now” Stiles replies, because a simple yes would be too banal for them, so she goes for a typical ‘them’ response before kissing Jackson on the forehead– he tries to get out of it because I am a big boy, mommy. I’m FOUR!– and then proceeding to settle for a quick peck to avoid crushing her son under her weight for a deeper kiss to Derek. 

Engagement celebrations will have to wait after the family dinner, but for now cuddles and napping in their bed, Derek’s arms wrapped around her body with their boy between them¬¬– like their first kiss– are a perfect conclusion for a frantic couple of hours.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
They marry in the winter despite their mother’s protests of it being too soon: they waited long enough for the simple wedding they want, so why bother postponing.

John walks her down the small path leading to the tallest oak on Hale property, the spot where years before they finally got their head out of their asses– never should have Stiles allowed Scott to do the speech, but Allison, with whom Stiles had struck a friendship longer than her relationship with her bother, was still in France training for some weird archery competition.

The dress is simple, a 50s inspired gown with little polka dots on the short skirt, a couple of flowers in her hair, and a pair of flaming red chucks proudly sporting a MRS STILINSKY-HALE on the back. After years she still wonders how Peter’s wife, Grace, managed to have the surnames fit in such little space.

Jackson is dressed to the nines, and only falls once as he grinningly sprints down the aisle to present his parents with their wedding rings: pack tradition demanded for something important to be written inside, and they opt for a simple triskele.

Past. Present. Future.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Jackson turns five in the middle of her first years teaching at Beacon Elementary, and she feels old when he starts first grade that fall. Hell, she’s twenty-three, not Methuselah.

At least she’s not alone, if Derek checking the mirror for white hair is something to go by.

“It’s unfair” she says one Sunday morning as they lay in bed waiting for their son to barge in and start jumping up and down demanding waffles “You’re still going to be hot. Oh my God: you’re going to be a DILF!”

“Well, if I’m going to be a DILF you’re going to be the only MILF I want to hook up with” he reassures her.

“That sounds oh soooo wrong coming from you” Stiles laughs, but she kisses him anyway because she’d right: he’s always going to be hot.

Which is why no one is surprised when, a couple of days after their second anniversary, they announce they’re going to have a baby and isn’t Jackson so cute when he tries to explain to his baby cousin Stephanie, Laura’s daughter, what it means to be a big brother?

Still, Isaac thanks her and Scott sulks, because apparently he had bet their brother they would wait year four of their marriage to expand the family and he has just lost fifty bucks he intended to use to buy his girlfriend Kira a birthday present.

She smirks at her brothers’ behavior, and pretends not to be annoyed at Derek when he keeps on insisting she sits down every couple minutes.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Claudia Marie is shortly after followed by twins Parrish and Liam, after which Stiles says she will personally castrate Derek if he dares impregnating her again. 

Their children grow and thrive, the pack enlarges, and the time comes for Talia to pass the mantle of Alpha onto Laura, who raises to the challenge she has been trained all her life and installs herself as one of the most respected and powerful leaders of Northern California.

Her dad retires, deciding he deserves some time away with his wife so they sail off for a six-month tour of the world from which they returned happily sated with normal adventure, and with some weight Stiles is willing to bet is going to be shed with a firm diet imposed by Melissa. But after nearly twenty-two years of marriage the man is still smitten and does what he’s told despite hating every minute of it.

Scott settles down with Kira who, as luck would have it, turns out to be a kitsune and wasn’t that fun to find out during Christmas dinner with Chris Argent attending? They live a couple of towns over where Scott practices as a vet and Kira holds some martial arts classes to young children.

Isaac attends college, graduates, experiments, and finally gives up his collection of scarves when he finally meets his match in a tall, dark, and handsome IT techie named Garreth at the law firm he’s interning at. Their parents don’t care, and the former Sheriff of Beacon Hills puts in a good world for his son’s boyfriend at the department.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Jackson finally turns eighteen and the whole pack celebrates: Cora comes up from her job in Argentina with her partner Joe and their two children; Peter and Grace bring their Malia and Alex; even cousin George manages to get out of a job to be in attendance. 

Stiles wants to cry at her baby boy being all grown up and ready to go to college come September, but she knows that’s how it has to be. All of his friends are here to celebrate, starting from BFF Danny and his boyfriend Ethan, who is being ignored in order to prevent Jackson from going all douche-y on Stephanie’s admittedly stupid boyfriend.

Even Jackson’s girlfriend, Lydia, managed to escape MIT for the weekend. Stiles knows her son to be really smart, but there’s no comparison with the fierce red-head and she couldn’t be happier her son proved to be worthy of such an impressive girl.

Then there’s other friends but who cares about them when she can concentrate on the beautiful specimen that is her husband: despite him being forty and starting to whiten, he still looks as beautiful as the first day she met him when she was eight. And she knows people would say men can’t be called beautiful, but she’s not the people and she can call the love of her life as she damn well pleases. 

Derek is entertaining the kids further in the garden under the watchful stare of a Talia struggling to rein in the enthusiasm of her younger grandchild, Cora’s daughter Braeden, a strong little thing barely six-years-old trying to escape to join in the fun of her older cousins.

Claudia is playing cards with her granddad as Melissa explains the best ways to kill a man with a syringe– and Stiles will worry later on about her daughter’s interest in killing, but as long as her girl says it’s for the interest of science, who is she to interfere. Parrish climbed a tree shortly after the cake was cut and has lost himself in one of his endless books, while Liam rushed back to his room with his dad’s permission as soon as he started feeling uncomfortable about all the noise.

The twins are still struggling with their shift, having just started a couple of months ago, but Liam is taking it harder than his brother so Stiles tries her best to make him feel alright with himself by letting him have the space he needs to concentrate. The good thing was that both boys had at least already found an anchor to use and concentrate, but it would be still some time before they managed to control it fully.

As for Claudia, she was a pro, or so Laura said, and had managed to be in full control of her shift from an early age. Well, Stiles was only happy to have something less to worry about.

And Jackson…Jackson was going to graduate soon and leave. She and Derek would still have the other three, but he was their eldest son and was going to be their baby boy for a long, long time.

“He’s going to be fine” 

She jumped, hitting Derek with a fist on the shoulder as she turned around.

“A bell, a fucking bell”

“Promises, promises” he smiled, arms circling around her hips and chin resting upon her head “He’s a smart boy, and Stanford is close: he can still call us if he needs us”

“I know. I know. I just…we’re old!”

“Speak for yourself, Sarusia” 

“I love you, you know?” she says, but before Derek could reply she interrupted him “Don’t you dare Han Solo me: it’s not the day”

“Spoilsport. Fine” he huffs “I know. And I love you too”

“Oh, you bastard!”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Artemis Ember comes to life eleven months later, on her mother’s thirty-seventh birthday.

Her brother Jackson is the first person to hold her after her father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I don't even know what kept me from writing an ending for so long...Oh, who am I kidding: I didn't feel like it. I started this baby when I started uni two years ago, and I though it deserved a proper ending, not an half-assed excuse of a conclusion.
> 
> I only wish my dissertation was this is to write. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the final chapter for Obliviously in Love and I hope you'll check out for other stories coming up the next few weeks.
> 
> *Sarusia: Polish nickname for Sarah
> 
> Here's a couple of ages at the end to keep track:
> 
> Jackson is 19  
> Claudia is 12  
> Liam and Parrish are 8  
> Stiles is 37  
> Derek is 41  
> Scott is 37  
> Isaac is 27/28  
> Laura is 44
> 
> Mistakes are my own. Feedback welcome.


End file.
